


Choices were made

by Talkingcheese



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: An actual love confession finally, Ellie is a bit ooc here, Other, a bit messy, a tad angsty, but its an AU so, cyborg!charles, no logic to be found in here, post the cost of winning, tophat!Ellie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:55:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26243008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talkingcheese/pseuds/Talkingcheese
Summary: Henry and Charles are happy together but, what will happen when the consequences of Henrys choices finally catch up to him?
Relationships: Charles Calvin/Henry Stickmin
Comments: 3
Kudos: 79





	Choices were made

“I can’t believe they really bounced back from having their base destroyed, we saw most of their members were left behind” Even as Charles read and re-read the mission details over and over he didn’t understand how everything they went through seemed to have been in vain.

“Don’t sweat it, it’s probably a small cell of remaining members we did saw two capsules leave the space station that day, also I have heard they have a new leader” Henry explained, he didn’t like to remember that day as much because of the marks left in both of them.

“Whoever it is better be prepared to face us” Charles wasn’t worried, with Henry by his side he was sure they could finish the thieves for good this time.

As the helicopter got closer they noticed that the base was actually not too far from where the original space station was, it was just further into the jungle covered by the trees and other vegetation that made access to that place harder.

Charles landed as far as they could as to not be discovered and they started walking until they found the cave where the base was hidden

“How are we getting in?” asked Charles, there was at least three guards

“Maybe we can distract them?” Henry was thinking of a good distraction, dancing was off the table after he got hit by a tank last time he tried

“Hmm...” Charles looked around and noticed a jaguar on a tree stalking a monkey, it was close enough, he used his cyber enhancements to make a laser pointer and attract the jaguar to the guards, a hungry big cat and meaty humans wasn’t exactly a good combination.

And the guard were actually scared of the animal that eyed them like they were big sentient steaks, they were afraid to fail to shoot the animal and get eaten 

It was at least enough time for both Henry and Charles to get inside   
“Good thinking there” said Henry as low as he could manage, Charles blushed “well I had always wanted to play with a big cat” it was an existential doubt if their mind worked the same as a house cat or not.

They started walking inside of the base, noticing that they were right in their theory, the organization had lost at least half of their members after the spaceship disaster.

That’s when Henry saw their new leader  
she was a woman with red hair and a big lilac top hat.   
“Isn’t that Ellie?” Charles asked him, Henry has told him about his cellmate back at the complex, the one he did not rescue, and it seemed she had not only managed to escape herself but also had quickly climbed ranks after the disaster they caused.

“Well task number one is finding Henry Stickmin and Charles Calvin, they caused us to become the laughing stock of the criminal underworld! I don’t care how dangerous you all think this mission is, this is a subject of honor, revenge and earning respect back, we can’t really rebuild everything if they are still on our way”   
Yes that was Ellie and she has an axe to grind against both of them 

“We have to take her down” said Henry, there was no other way, without a leader the organization would suffer another big blow and this one could finally finish them for good.

“She is going to be heavily guarded, I assume her office must be at a top floor”  
Problem was, the elevator had a card system, only high rank members could go to the top floors  
“I could always try and hack into the elevator´s system but is going to take some time, think you can cover me?” asked Charles 

Henry nodded, he didn’t have much on him but that hadn’t stopped him before and wouldn’t stop him now 

They both waited until Ellie and her body guards were gone before Charles attempted to hack into the elevator so it would let them in   
They were spotted and Henry fought off the members who tried to get to Charles, he got a gun from one of them and took care of the rest, but he was running out of bullets   
“Almost done?” he asked obviously nervous

There was a ping! Sound and the access port turned green  
“Done” said Charles, but that activated the alarms.  
They ran into the elevator as it moved to the upper floor hopefully quick enough for Ellie not to have time to go anywhere else

“Looks like I didn’t even need to search for you two” she said, in retrospective she should have expected them to come and try to take everyone down after last time  
“You both are really starting to piss me off” and the problem was that Ellie had a lot more people up there with her than they had expected, they were surrounded.

“Why come back here with them? It’s obvious the group is in shambles” said Henry trying to make conversation and gain some time.

“And why not? It’s not like I had anywhere else to go, in this word one has to look out for themselves, I though you knew about that more than anyone Henry” Ellie´s look gave Henry a cold chill down his spine   
“But since you have become the government´s pet I assume you really believe you can trust them” he really believed he was safe working for them, didn’t he? To her it was something laughable. 

“Leave him alone, he decided to right his path and he made that choice because of me  
you aren’t superior for deciding to continue being a street rat” Charles defended Henry and he sounded angrier than Henry had ever heard him, it was not easy to make Charles angry, this was new territory for him.  
“Oh did I made your boyfriend mad? The little coward who decided to work on the safe side of the military, tell me Charles, have you ever seen the faces of the people you have killed?   
And not from above where you can just end their lives as if they were ants, I mean really look into their eyes as they become vacant and soulless, if you don’t even have the courage to look people in the eyes as you end them, do you really think you are someone who can judge me or anyone else?”   
Ellie´s voice was full of venom, if she managed to intimidate Charles or not, he didn’t allow it to show, but she had a grin anyway.

Henrys face was red, had she really called Charles his boyfriend? And he didn’t deny it  
but no, this wasn’t the moment, he had to focus   
“It takes a lot more courage to get to where he is now than it took you to climb the ranks of a ship that is already sinking” Henry wasn’t going to let her call Charles a coward, not after he had sacrificed his life for him.

“Well love birds, this is the end of the line, you are surrounded, but at least you will both die together right?~” She took out her gun, everyone was heavily armed

“Ready?” asked Charles, looking Henry in the eyes, determined to end this once and for all  
“Always” Henry grabbed Charles hand and Charles made a bubble to deflect the bullets, they started running around as if it was a hamster ball taking everyone on their path down with their own weight.

“Why do I have to do everything myself?” Ellie used a sword to burst the bubble.

Now it was two against one.

“No more games Ellie, you are outnumbered, so just give up already, we can do this the easy or the hard way” said Henry, he knew Charles had weapons on his armor, she was done for.

“I think I will do it my way” Ellie gave the sign to one of her men that was actually still conscious, he tased Charles from behind the overcharge so great it effectively paralyzed him and he shut down.

Ellie took Charles  
“Well I think you have to listen to me now, if you don’t want anything to happen to your little friend” she was actually grabbing him by the neck, Henry wanted her dirty hands off of his friend, but it was too risky to try and attack her, she could use Charles as a human shield.

“What do you want?” Henry asked, his tone as neutral as he could but his eyes still blazed at her with all the anger he had inside.

“Destroy anything you have that can communicate back to them, from now on you both work for me” Ellie explained

“After everything that happened you really think I won’t try to murder you?” Henry was being honest, he felt like slamming her face against the pavement right now

“Not if you value Charles as much as you say you do” Ellie was planning on holding him hostage

Not that Henry was surprised, as long as she had Charles, Henry was at her mercy.  
And so he destroyed his cellphone 

“Well done!  
Now I want you to help up everyone that you just ran over with the hamster all, you better get used to all of those faces, you will be seeing them for a long time” Ellie effortlessly carried Charles, Henry had to admit he was impressed, Charles weighted a lot more now that he was half metal.

“Where are you taking him?!” Henry demanded, although he was doing what she ordered, because he didn’t have any other options

“If you behave I might allow you to see him later” she said before opening the elevator and taking her hostage with.

Henry had done everything she asked, he had helped everyone back up, cleaned the mess both him and Charles made with the entry and recalibrated the security systems of the base, but obviously he was growing impatient, Charles had been with Ellie for far too long and he didn’t even know what she was doing to him.

She called him back to her office on the top floor  
“You have done everything I asked for so I wanted you to be the first one to see” Ellie clapped and Charles appeared before her, his normally red eye had become green, he stood beside her, weapon in hand.  
“My new personal guard, cute isn’t he?” she smiled.

“What did you do to him?” Henry attempted to get closer, Charles kicked him out of the way, he was way stronger than he looked, Henry ended up losing balance and falling to the floor.

“Fixed him of course, I told you I would let you see him, I didn’t promise anything else” Ellie said, she saw that her guard was pointing a gun at henrys throat, she didn’t care much because he wouldn’t fire unless she told him to. 

“Why are you doing this?” Henry asked both angry and tired as he tried to wiggle himself out of being held against the floor but his friend didn’t move an inch.

“Nothing personal, I just need you out of my way but killing you would be too easy, especially after you left me in that cell to rot” She was still angry at that, Henry was surprised, when he left her behind he hadn’t imagined it would really impact her that much.

“I didn’t want to work with someone who could betray me at any moment, we are criminals you should understand” said Henry from the floor

“But you trusted Charles when he told you he could take this whole organization down, even after the government kidnapped you, you still trusted him to help you, is it because you like him?” She was humoring of course, she already knew the answer.

“I-… Charles and I were friends, even if I was a criminal he still came searching for me, and requested my help on that mission, I had no reason to not trust him” but Henrys face was red, it was obvious he did like Charles that way 

“Well, I was planning on disposing of you myself but, I think it would be a lot more painful to have your lover end you here, right in front of me” She made the signal to Charles to fire

Henry managed to get out of his hold in time  
“Stop…please! you can’t do this, not to me, not after all we have been through” he was trying to get his friend back 

Charles was pointing at his head, looking straight on, but there was a slight trembling on his fingers, hesitation?

“Charles, im sorry, im sorry all of this is happening because of me! Again I didn’t think of the consequences of what I did, if it was just me who was going to suffer because of this I would let myself suffer, but I don’t want you to spend your life like this” There was plea on Henrys eyes as he looked to Charles, he wasn’t actually scared, he trusted that he could get through to his friend

“What are you waiting for?” Ellie pressed, Charles whole body was trembling, he just couldn’t do it even if his programming was screaming at him to do so. 

“Charles..i love you, im sorry I never said anything, I thought you wouldn’t like me back, I just wanted to keep our friendship but I think we both know what I feel is much more than friendship, please drop that and lets end this together” Henry was actually holding back tears, the confession had come out in fear and regret for not doing it earlier.

He heard a gunshot

But Charles had turned around and fired at Ellie

“There’s some things you can’t erase you know? Feelings are the first one on the list”   
He knew she was wearing a bullet proof vest, but he also knew that she had been prideful enough not to have any other guards

“Pity, I actually planned on letting you live, but if im going down, I will take all of you with me” Ellie activated a system to destroy the base.  
“Theres no way of getting out, every automatic door is closed and the system is shutting itself, I hope you both enjoy burning in hell”

She started firing at Charles as he attempted to cover Henry the best that he could  
“Make a way out Henry, I will hold her back” he told him  
Henry went for the weapons hidden on the main office, maybe he could blow a hole on the wall, the problem was that they were in a fourth floor and the landing would surely kill him if he jumped

Charlie could fly but they had to get rid of Ellie first 

Henry decided to make the hole using a grenade 

Smoke rose   
They lost Ellie on the smoke and Henry grabbed onto Charles  
“The right wall is open, we can fly from there” or at least he hoped they could

“Let’s get out of here” Charlie carried Henry as they flew across leaving a big explosion behind them.

They found their way back to the helicopter  
“Mission accomplished” said Henry  
Charles was a lot more serious than usual “What you said there…did you say it just so I didn’t fire at you or…?”

“I was never afraid of you shooting me, I know you wouldn’t do something like that, some things can’t be rewired you know?” Henry smiled at him

“Everything I said was true, however..i want to know if you feel the same” he was still nervous about that

“Of course I love you Henry, I thought you were the one who wouldn’t want to be with me” Charles didn’t have the highest view of himself

“Look, you are driving and I don’t want to die so I won’t kiss you right now but if you don’t stop I swear im going to make you see how important and special you are” said Henry, he was playing angry though he wasn’t really angry at him, but Charles really liked his ominous romanticism

“Don’t threaten me with a good time” Chales winked at him 

They didn’t manage to get Ellie but they had managed to take the Top Hat group down and as such both of them were satisfied with their mission.

They found out their feelings and now they knew the other felt the same and were able to share their love together.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear im going to write Ellie properly into a story one of these days, but i had this idea and i just couldnt let it go to waste, also that ending of the Top Hat civil war totally inspired me to write this, longest and cheesiest one yet i hope you all enjoy!


End file.
